Thursday, October 27, 2011

NaNoWriMo: Getting Started

The response on the last post was pretty overwhelming-- yay!-- it sounds like a TON of people are gearing up for NaNoWriMo this year.

So let's do this! From now until the end of November, I'll theme my posts here around NaNoWriMo. I'd love to hear from newbies and from past NaNo participants alike: what sorts of information would you like to see here? Basic cheerleading, writing prompts, stories of NaNo successes, useful links? Funny, unrelated YouTube videos?

I'll be back here soon with lots of good NaNo stuff-- but in the meantime, have you completed your official sign-up yet?

4 comments:

During NaNo, I'm so focused on actually writing that writing advice and stories slip by me. What I need though, are nice distractions from thinking so my fingers can rest and maybe something to help me overcome writing blocks.

When I'm stuck, I always pester my crit partner for five words. Then I challenge myself to use as many of those words in the next paragraph as I can. Maybe a post with a list of random, unrelated words and the challenge to use as many as you can in the next day of writing? This should ultimately come at the end of Week 2 when we start losing steam.

For the region I ML, I also drag around a "Block Box" where we all toss in various prompts, both serious and silly. Odd characters, unusual settings, conflict-laden events, a change of writing technique. When we get stuck, we can draw from the box until we come across something that helps us get going again. Maybe a post with ideas we can draw from?

Yeah, I'm all about the prompts and silliness when it comes to NaNo. When it's going good, it's going good. When it's not, I need someone to smack me with a fish and remind me that this is supposed to be fun.

So yeah, I really want to do this... but actually what I want to do is work on that first draft that's been marinating, and get it to second draft. That probably doesn't fit the "rules" of NaNoWriMo, so I might not officially sign up. But I'm not going to let that stop me!! :)

I've been stuck on plot structure. Are there other options besides chronological, which feels like journal entries?